København Traces: Place-making through form - An Inquiry into Architectural objects, Embodied Occupation and Place

Abstract

This proposal is an architectural enquiry into how intertwined formal qualities of surface, volume and geometry affect occupation at different scales. The intention is to design performances that promote a shared agency between the volumetric spatiality of the architectural object and its occupant. The research aims to experiment with this through a meshing of formal tests and spatial perception, which together act as an apparatus to activate the research questioning. The results of this research, in influencing the embodied occupation, will contribute to understanding how form influences a sense of place. Globalisation reduces our sense of belonging through repeatable spatial formulas, returning to an identity of place is significant in activating essences of the city. Avoiding the ever-increasing presence of the term Rem Koolhaas calls the ‘generic city’ and allowing for interconnecting of small and public scale conditions for people. Using scaling as a device to reinterpret architecture and the urban spatial condition of place, the DNA of past and present architectural objects are distilled and extracted from the Copenhagen context then projected back into the drawings. Towards the enmeshing of structure, material, light, colour, geometry and spatial perception – derived through the manipulation of the Copenhagen formal context - this research expands on notions of place and how it is understood. This research operates as a series of iterative experiments through the design of three projects: an installation, a mid-scale building, and a public building. The design research situated in an urban context, the port area of Copenhagen, and specific elements of the site are chosen for their opportunities in testing form, occupation and place.